One Touch Too Far
by Alijandra
Summary: "We're not ready for this, Beth." I tell her. "I don't know that any of them would ever accept-" "Its because of her, isn't it?" She interrupts me, for the first time her voice hardens. Whatever innocence was left in our relationship is gone. Thoughtless touches, now had intention. Wordless glances, now held hints of wonder. And any person who challenged that, was now a threat.


**One touch Too far**

_ Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any part of the walking dead series, If I did, I wouldn't have been a prick and killed off the beloved Beth Greene. _

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><p><span>(Grady Memorial Hospital)<span>

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><p>(Daryl's POV)<p>

Ever since I was young, I always knew to keep my distance- distance from others, even a safe range from thoughts I couldn't shake. Distance was safe. You could never stay too far away from something you couldn't control.

That was my life. My own personal purgatory. Even before all of this went down, and the world went to shit. I was already there. Then, all of a sudden, the people I had been running from my whole life were running with me.

My space was invaded. My solitary lifestyle interrupted. The walkers didn't scare me. People had always looked that way to me. Soulless, hollow, with empty eyes, and a greedy selfish hunger.

Hope came in the form of something I never expected. I wasn't looking for it. Hell, I didn't even know it existed. I had always thought it was just some word to describe how lucky people felt about something they knew they were entitled to anyway. Hope was a preconceived idea, and the lucky were just being modest.

Little did I know that hope had crystal blue eyes, and a smile too bright for the darkness to consume. Hope had a name, and a greater meaning. She was called Beth. She was a younger sister, to a stronger personality she always felt the need to match. She was a farmers daughter, and carried on the legacy of man many were lucky to have known.

After the prison, after everything we went through together- the feelings of hope, the pain of losing her. I lived with those feelings everyday since then.

And every night after that, if I closed my eyes tight enough, and if I concentrated real hard I could still remember the softness in her voice, and the brightness in her eyes when she begged to hear things I didn't have the strength to tell her.

_ "What changed your mind?" She asked me, blond head tilted. All innocence and smiles, as we ate our last supper together ._

_ All I could do is mumble like a small child stuck inside of a mans body. Knowing full well what I wanted to say. I just lacked the experience, and tack needed to follow through with what she deserved to hear._

Now, I was still grappling with the meaning of this new word _hope_, but I hoped with all my heart that when I looked into her big, blue captivating eyes that she knew that all that I had become was because of her. Her light. Her smile. Her simple innocent touch.

Fast forward and now here we are at Grady Memorial hospital, about to make the switch. She's walking towards us, and my hearts soaring with euphoric relief.

She's at our side. And I'm concentrating more on her and the fact that she's breathing, than anything else that's being said.

Then the game changes. My ears catch enough of that. Dawn, the bitch officer we've come to learn a lot about in a short period of time, wants Noah.

Rick protests, Noah eventually surrenders. Then all of a sudden everything is happening too fast. Beth hugs Noah, then turns to Dawn.

" I get it now." She nods. Her backs to me, but somehow I know she's frowning. A eerie silence fills the air, and is soon disrupted by the sound of a single gunshot ringing out. My heart drops. I can't breath. Before I know it I'm watching Beth fall to the floor, and I'm putting a gun to the officers head, putting her down.

I can feel the pressure of someone's hand on my shoulder, but I brush it off. I need to get to her. I need to hold her. The floors too cold, and hard, and dirty. I have to make her as comfortable as I can. More words are flying through the air, but I miss them all. None of it matters now. The world stopped as I held her in my arms, and buried my face into her neck and cried.

She's dead. She's gone. Just like that. Those thoughts consumed me. Its not long before my chest tightens, and it becomes harder to breath. I'm fading in and out of conscious reality.

Then I feel them on me. Rick and the others. I see their mouths moving fast, with looks of desperation on each of their faces, but I cant understand any of them. That's when it hit me. They wanted to take her away from me. I was angry and I was confused, and I fought them to keep her. I held onto her as tight as I could and fought with everything I had left, but eventually they overpowered me. They pried her out of my arms and rushed her into the nearest emergency room.

"Its gonna be okay, man." Tyrese promised, as he helped Sasha pin me down.

I was all tears and rage.

"The doctors gonna help her." He told me breathlessly as I struggled to get free.

_ Help her? Help what!? She was shot through the head. I saw it. They saw it. There was no helpin nothin! My thoughts screamed._

It took a minute, but the more shit I saw them rushing into the room, the more hope I started to have. They had everything; IVs, fluid, medical instruments I didn't dare guess the names of.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed as I sat there outside of her room, unable to see her, but I breathed a sigh of relief when the doctor said he was able to safely remove the bullet.

Maggie, Glen, and the others showed up not long after Beth got shot. Needless to say, I had very few words for any of them.

At some point during the night Rick suggested we all get some rest. The hallway we occupied must have seemed so tight and compact. I could tell no one wanted to walk away and leave their post, but eventually, a few gave way. The newbies gave way first, followed by a few of our own. Michonne grabbed my shoulder firmly, and gave it a slight squeeze before saying something about needing to get the younger ones to bed.

Tyrese and Sasha offered their support to a sobbing Maggie before turning in as well.

Soon, the only ones left sitting in the hall are me, Carol, Maggie, and Glen, with Carol and me on one side, and Maggie and Glenn on the other.

Rick hangs back a little longer and suggest we all take shifts, but I tell him I'm not leaving. He understands, and after a little while longer follows the others for some shut eye.

There isn't much any of us can say as we sit there and wait.

Maggie's still crying as Glen holds her in his arms, and I can't help but feel a edge of resentment building inside of me at the sight of her. She's sorry now, yeah, but where was she when she found out Beth was still alive? Oh, yeah, that's right. She was following her boy toy to Washington.

Then again, I guess I wasn't much better. Sure, I ran after her- only to let a fork in the road get in the way.

"Why can't we see her?" I hear Maggie asked Glen, yanking me from my thoughts.

"The Doctor said its still too soon. They need to limit the amount of traffic in and out of the room." Glen reminded her, while lacing his hands through her dark hair. "She's at high risk for infection. It's a delicate situation. We just have to be patient."

"How you holding up?" Carols soft voice is in my ear, tearing me away from Glen and Maggie's conversation, and while I know she's just trying to be supportive, I'm not much for small talk at the moment.

"I'm alright." I murmur just loud enough for her to hear, hoping she leaves it at that.

"You gonna be up much longer?" Glen asks me. It seems Maggie's fallen asleep in his arms.

"Yeah." I nod my head. "You two go on to bed. I got this." I assured him.

When they're gone, Carol turns to me.

"I can stay up with you, if you want." She says, offering me that tired, weak smile I've grown to know all too well.

"I think it's best you didn't." I tell her numbly.

She's a little taken aback by my words, and its not my intention to hurt her, but I need to be alone.

"Okay." Is all she can say, before she slowly rises, and leaves my side, disappearing down another corridor of the hospital.

The silence seems to help. I don't have to fake small talk, or pretend to care about anyone else's feelings on the matter. Its just me, her, and this thin wall between us, and right now that's the only comfort I needed.

A/N: So, as you can tell, I'm still coping with the events of the midseason finale. I don't know whether the show will ever be the same for me, in the event its not, I'll try my hand at this and see if it helps. I have no disrespect for the Carol/Daryl shippers out there. To each their own. If you aren't interested in a Beth/Daryl centered fic though, I'd steer clear of this story.

P/S: This was mildly edited, so yeah, my bad for any errors. ;)


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